Nearly 100 killed in ambulance blast in Afghan capital Kabul

[rooster59]

Nearly 100 killed in ambulance blast in Afghan capital Kabul

By Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni

 

Afghan security forces members and civilians assist the injured after a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan January 27, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

 

KABUL (Reuters) - A bomb hidden in an ambulance killed at least 95 people and wounded about 158 in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday when it blew up at a police checkpoint in a busy part of the city that was crowded with pedestrians.

 

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide blast, a week after they claimed an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in which more than 20 people were killed.

 

An interior ministry spokesman blamed the Haqqani network, a militant group affiliated with the Taliban which Afghan and Western officials consider to be behind many of the biggest attacks on urban targets in Afghanistan.

 

As medical teams struggled to handle the casualties pouring in, some of the wounded were laid out in the open, with intravenous drips set up next to them in hospital gardens.

 

"It's a massacre," said Dejan Panic, coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a nearby trauma hospital that treated dozens of wounded.

 

Hours after the blast, a health ministry spokesman said the casualty toll had risen to at least 95 killed and 158 wounded.

 

Saturday's explosion capped a violent week in Afghanistan, with the siege at the Intercontinental Hotel and another attack on an office of the aid group Save the Children in the eastern city of Jalalabad. That attack was claimed by Islamic State.

 

The wave of attacks has put pressure on President Ashraf Ghani and his U.S. allies, who have expressed growing confidence that a new, more aggressive military strategy has succeeded in driving Taliban insurgents back from major provincial centres.

 

The United States has stepped up its assistance to Afghan security forces and increased its air strikes against the Taliban and other militant groups, aiming to break a stalemate and force the insurgents to the negotiating table.

 

However, the Taliban have dismissed suggestions they have been weakened by the new strategy, and the past week has shown their capacity to mount deadly, high-profile attacks is undiminished, even in the heavily protected centre of Kabul.

 

Washington, which has accused Pakistan of giving assistance to the Taliban and has cut off some aid to Islamabad, urged all countries to take "decisive action" to stop the violence.

 

"There can be no tolerance for those who support or offer sanctuary to terrorist groups," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

 

In a statement, President Donald Trump condemned the attack and said it "renews our resolve and that of our Afghan partners."

 

Pakistan, which denies the accusations, condemned the attack and called for "concerted efforts and effective cooperation among the states to eradicate the scourge of terrorism."

 

AMBULANCE AT CHECKPOINT

 

Saturday is a working day in Afghanistan and the streets were full when the blast went off at around lunchtime in a busy part of the city close to shops and markets and near a number of foreign embassies and government buildings.

 

Mirwais Yasini, a member of parliament who was near the blast, said an ambulance approached the checkpoint and blew up, having passed through another checkpoint further down the road.

 

The target was apparently an Interior Ministry building but the victims were mainly people who happened to be in the street.

Buildings hundreds of metres (yards) away were shaken by the force of the blast, which left torn bodies strewn on the street amid piles of rubble, debris and wrecked cars.

 

"Today's attack is nothing short of an atrocity," Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that those behind it must be brought to justice.

 

The casualty toll is the worst since 150 people were killed in a huge truck bomb explosion last May near the German embassy. That attack prompted a major reinforcement of security aimed at preventing similar vehicle-borne assaults.

 

Security officials said further attacks were likely and security was tightened around potential targets in the city.

 

But with much of central Kabul already a heavily fortified zone of high concrete blast walls and police checkpoints, there were angry questions about how the bomber got through.

 

"Officials must be held responsible," said former deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayub Salangi.

 

People helped walking-wounded away as ambulances with sirens wailed through the traffic-clogged streets of the city centre.

 

"I was sitting in the office when the explosion went off," said Alam, an office worker whose head was badly cut in the blast. "All the windows shattered, the building collapsed and everything came down."

 

The Swedish and Dutch embassies as well as the European Union mission and an Indian consular office are also nearby but there were no reports that any staff were hurt.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-28

[simple1]

Another horrendous mass murder of civilians by Sunni Islamist terrorists - RIP.  Anyone know why US forces are unable to create the Sunni Awakening project that was so successful in Anwar Province in Iraq - not enough boots on the ground?

[RichardColeman]

Happy new year from Islam !

[hansnl]

37 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Happy new year from Islam !

Indeed, another show of love from the "religion of peace"

[isaanbanhou]

3 minutes ago, hansnl said:

Indeed, another show of love from the "religion of peace"

 

A shame they didn t have dutch peacekeepers to protect them.. then it would be an orderly murder/genocide

[i claudius]

I am glad their religion is so peacfull. God only knows what they would do if they believed in killing and taking over other religions

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[simple1]

25 minutes ago, hansnl said:

Indeed, another show of love from the "religion of peace"

From an extreme Islamist ideology with a small number of followers worldwide - Salafi jihadism. Killing of fellow Muslims is forbidden in mainstream Islam.

[robblok]

3 minutes ago, i claudius said:

I am glad their religion is so peacfull. God only knows what they would do if they believed in killing and taking over other religions

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

What other religions.. Muslims killing Muslims here.. and guess what most of the deaths at the hand of Muslim terrorists are.... other Muslims. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

Hope they have KY in hell.

[Denim]

Try as I might , I simply cannot imagine what goes on between the ears of a suicide bomber. What can they possibly think they are achieving.

 

Or maybe it's just that they are the sort of people easily hypnotized , like those awful shows put on by western hypnotists. 

 

In any event, a tradgedy for the victims and their families. 

[simple1]

17 minutes ago, Denim said:

Try as I might , I simply cannot imagine what goes on between the ears of a suicide bomber. What can they possibly think they are achieving.

 

Or maybe it's just that they are the sort of people easily hypnotized , like those awful shows put on by western hypnotists. 

 

In any event, a tradgedy for the victims and their families. 

Taliban are known to indoctrinate young people. As the killing was by a vehicle bomb - ambulance - must be by an older person. Maybe Taliban pay the family of the bomber, as do some other Islamist terror groups for martyrdom operations.

[katana]

On 28/01/2018 at 6:47 AM, simple1 said:

From an extreme Islamist ideology with a small number of followers worldwide - Salafi jihadism. Killing of fellow Muslims is forbidden in mainstream Islam.

"...Killing of fellow Muslims is forbidden in mainstream Islam..."
I don't think that's quite correct and depends on how you define a muslim.
Mainstream Sunni Islam—the world's dominant strand of Islam which ISIS adheres to—views all non-Sunnis as false Muslims at best, they are heretics who need to submit to the "true Islam" no less than the infidels. This is largely how Sunnis view Shias and vice versa—hence their perennial war. While Westerners tend to lump them together as "Muslims," each group—especially the "radicals" among them, that is, the jihadis—views the other as enemies.
This is the logic behind muslim on muslim violence; it is undertaken under the same exact logic as when Christian minorities, or European, American, and Israeli citizens are attacked and killed: all are infidels who must either embrace the true faith, be subjugated, or die.

Consider verse 9:73 from the Koran:

    "Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell."

The Arabic for “strive hard” uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this verse is holy war.  Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with “harshness”: disbelievers and hypocrites.
A “disbeliever” obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort.  In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should.  In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught.
Thus, the mindset of the terrorist is perfectly compatible with the koran. Such persons sincerely believe that they are fighting for the advancement and rule of Islam - an Islamic state governed by Sharia.  Their active opponents - Muslim or otherwise - are therefore "disbelievers" and obstacles to that which Allah has ordained.  They are thus categorized as hypocrites along with any others who will not join or assist the cause.  The Koran says to deal harshly with these people - and so they do, hence muslims killing fellow muslims who don't quite follow their version of Islam.

Edited February 2, 2018 by katana

[simple1]

56 minutes ago, katana said:

"...Killing of fellow Muslims is forbidden in mainstream Islam..."
I don't think that's quite correct and depends on how you define a muslim.
Mainstream Sunni Islam—the world's dominant strand of Islam which ISIS adheres to—views all non-Sunnis as false Muslims at best <snip>

As a statement of the blindingly obvious originally there was not a sectarian division in Islam. All the stuff you talk to is man made constructs after the death of Mohammed. I know a number of Thai Sunni Muslims who do not subscribe to your assertions, different interpretations of Islam practised throughout the Muslim world.  Personally, I do not follow any Abrahamic religion, IMO they are all nonsense, but some good if believers follow the spiritual path, not tainted by political ideology.

 

Edited February 3, 2018 by simple1

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, katana said:

"...Killing of fellow Muslims is forbidden in mainstream Islam..."
I don't think that's quite correct and depends on how you define a muslim.
Mainstream Sunni Islam—the world's dominant strand of Islam which ISIS adheres to—views all non-Sunnis as false Muslims at best, they are heretics who need to submit to the "true Islam" no less than the infidels. This is largely how Sunnis view Shias and vice versa—hence their perennial war. While Westerners tend to lump them together as "Muslims," each group—especially the "radicals" among them, that is, the jihadis—views the other as enemies.
This is the logic behind muslim on muslim violence; it is undertaken under the same exact logic as when Christian minorities, or European, American, and Israeli citizens are attacked and killed: all are infidels who must either embrace the true faith, be subjugated, or die.

Consider verse 9:73 from the Koran:

    "Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell."

The Arabic for “strive hard” uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this verse is holy war.  Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with “harshness”: disbelievers and hypocrites.
A “disbeliever” obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort.  In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should.  In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught.
Thus, the mindset of the terrorist is perfectly compatible with the koran. Such persons sincerely believe that they are fighting for the advancement and rule of Islam - an Islamic state governed by Sharia.  Their active opponents - Muslim or otherwise - are therefore "disbelievers" and obstacles to that which Allah has ordained.  They are thus categorized as hypocrites along with any others who will not join or assist the cause.  The Koran says to deal harshly with these people - and so they do, hence muslims killing fellow muslims who don't quite follow their version of Islam.

 

Very good insight into the strange muslim way of thinking.

There is a documentary about ISIS in some far corner of Afghanistan. They think the Talibans are too soft and kill a bunch of the elder men by hanging and making a group of them kneel on a bomb. You can imagine the rest.

[simple1]

24 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

Very good insight into the strange muslim way of thinking.

There is a documentary about ISIS in some far corner of Afghanistan. They think the Talibans are too soft and kill a bunch of the elder men by hanging and making a group of them kneel on a bomb. You can imagine the rest.

Read a while ago some Taliban joining IS as they get better pay, though the Taliban have often said they hate the 'Arab fighters'. Also got the same problem as some other parts of the Islamic world, Tribal warfare based upon sectarian differences.

 

Just read the latest analysis from David Kilcullen. Kilcullen claims Afghanistan is rapidly heading to a prior status based upon Trump's decision to increase the tempo of bombing - escalating stalemate. i.e. more killing on both sides, but no resolution to the conflict.